PUNGO — Both The Virginian-Pilot and The Daily Press recently wrote about a TV journalist leaving the Hampton Roads market after a few years, treatment the organizations seldom give their own people.
It reflects an absurd understanding of the value of TV news reporters compared to print journalists. There are some good journalists on the local TV news. Yet there are excellent journalists who aren’t TV “personalities,” if that is the right word.
So: Amy Poulter, a former intern with The Independent News, is doing a fine job for The Pilot now. Please seek out her work.
And Judah Taylor of Southside Daily, who has helped energize news coverage in Virginia Beach in only a few months, is moving to The Pilot, where he will join the copy desk. He’s done great work.
People like Poulter and Taylor are the future of journalism. We should write about it.
► In the a recent edition, I mentioned that we are consolidating our Shadowlawn distribution spots to the blue box outside the Jr. Market. I can now tell you that we are no longer delivering to our only Norfolk location. This is a logistics issue.
I no longer work in Norfolk, and it is not practical to drive there for one spot outside our core coverage area.
I am especially grateful to all at Elliot’s Fairgrounds News & Coffee for having our paper in the shop in recent months. It remains my favorite place to get a cup of joe in Norfolk, and I’m sorry that I cannot keep the rack there anymore.
Further, I’ll just mention the passing this past month of Elliot Juren, who founded the coffee shop and was kind when I was a young writer with The Pilot. There are good people all over. It’s a shame to lose them.
Thanks for reading.
© 2016 Pungo Publishing Co., LLC
The same happens in our local print journalism. I see Poulter is still at The Pilot but Taylor moved on and “up” to Politico. We can’t keep even one data journalist in our market, before they want to go to a bigger publication. It’s a “middle market” syndrome. Of course, when you wrote this The Pilot was still a local paper and not owned by a hedge fund. Thank you for being here and staying here, PAIN!